Did a post-game conversation with Jay Johnson unleash the superstar talent Nick Quintana has displayed recently? Perhaps.
But Johnson believes another talk was much more valuable. This one happened in 2016, when the Wildcats coach helped convince the gifted infielder to come to Arizona instead of signing with the Boston Red Sox, who just so happened to be Quintana’s favorite major-league team.
Quintana was leaning toward Arizona anyway. His older brother, Zach, had been a third-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2012. Zach went straight from Las Vegas’ Arbor View High School to the minor leagues. He struggled, and five years later he retired from baseball.
“Every kid wants to play pro baseball, but it has to make sense,” their father, Marty Quintana, said by phone this week. “At the end of the day, it made more sense for Nick to go to college and the U of A.”
Quintana is blossoming in his second season at Arizona. After a slow start, he has found a groove. No hitter in college baseball is hotter than the sophomore third baseman.
Over his past nine games, Quintana has 19 hits in 35 at-bats. Seven have gone for home runs, surpassing the six he hit as a freshman in 58 games and 208 at-bats.
In the first 22 games of this season, Quintana hit .244 with no homers and 11 RBIs. Since then, he’s hitting .543 with those seven bombs and 20 RBIs.
“He’s put in the work,” Johnson said. “He’s deserving what he’s getting. He’s really matured mentally over the last month or so, and you’re getting to see the player he’s capable of being because of that.”
Everything changed between the second and third games of the Washington State series in late March. Johnson and the then-slumping Quintana talked. Quintana made some critical alterations to his approach. He’s been a different hitter since — the hitter he always was capable of being.
But before we explain how that happened, let’s look back at how the Quintana-Johnson partnership came to be.
Its roots preceded the 2016 MLB draft. Johnson’s recruitment of Quintana began when Johnson was the top assistant at the University of San Diego. Southern California appealed to Quintana. But the school he initially committed to wasn’t USD — it was USC, the team Arizona visits for a three-game series starting Friday.
Quintana once described USC as his “dream school.” He committed to the Trojans as a freshman in high school. But as often happens with teenagers, Quintana later changed his mind.
“As I got older, I felt like it wasn’t the right fit for me,” he said this week. “I had to make a tough decision. And Coach Johnson gave me an opportunity here.”
Johnson had made a strong impression on Quintana, but he didn’t want to play for him at Nevada. Quintana had lived in Las Vegas his whole life. He wanted to experience something different.
Johnson got the UA job in June 2015. Quintana would start his senior year of high school later that summer. The timing was perfect.
“When I got the job at Arizona, his dad called me,” Johnson said. “‘Hey, he wants to play for you now that you’re at Arizona.’ It happened pretty quickly. We’re very fortunate to have him.”
About a year later, the Red Sox selected Quintana in the 11th round of the MLB draft. He had another tough decision to make.
“That was a big deal,” said Marty Quintana, whose family’s exercise room is decorated with Red Sox paraphernalia. “But also understanding the process of playing in the minor leagues — it’s a grind. He learned that from his older brother. It’s not easy.
“It wasn’t a situation where he was being offered millions. It made more sense for him to go to college. He definitely made the right decision. If the opportunity comes up again, he’s going to be a much better player, much more mature.”
That opportunity will come. Entering the season, Baseball America named Nick Quintana the top 2019 pro prospect in the Pac-12. His recent play has substantiated that ranking.
Ironically, it might have been Quintana’s greatest trait — his competitiveness — that was holding him back earlier this season. That was the gist of his discussion with Johnson after Game 2 of the WSU series, when he went 0 for 4 in a 5-4 Arizona defeat. The Wildcats are 8-1 since.
“When you’re a great competitor, you expect success,” Johnson said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen, and you end up chasing the result instead of what you need to do to be successful.
“I think he’s done a good job of getting himself back into seeing the ball well, looking for the right pitch and being aggressive on the right pitch.
“He’s just kind of taking it a pitch and an at-bat at a time. When he does that, he’s really good and his talent comes out.”
Since he started hitting more home runs and striking out less — four times in his past 35 at-bats vs. 19 in his first 82 — Quintana has talked often about being “completely clear-minded” at the plate. It’s hard not to carry frustration from one at-bat to the next; you’re basically fighting human nature. But it’s essential for success in baseball.
Marty Quintana, who’s been coaching his sons since they were T-ballers, texts Nick a friendly reminder before every game: “Every day is opening day.”
“I believe he’s embraced that idea,” Marty said.
Inside pitch
- Arizona will start junior right-handers Cody Deason (3-2, 2.00) and Michael Flynn (5-1, 3.72) in the first two games of the USC series. The third starter is TBA. The Trojans’ probable starters are righties Kyle Hurt (2-2, 2.81) and Solomon Bates (2-1, 3.23) and lefty Quentin Longrie (4-1, 3.35).
- USC has won three of its past four games, including two of three at Arizona State last weekend.
- UA is the only team in the Pac-12 to rank in the top three in the league in batting (.296, third) and ERA (2.74, third).
- Arizona leads the conference in on-base percentage (.407) and walks (156).
- UA sophomore second baseman Cameron Cannon ranks in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in batting average (.355, ninth), on-base percentage (.448, ninth), runs (31, T-third), hits (43, sixth), RBIs (34, fourth) and total bases (68, seventh).
- Senior reliever Robby Medel was suspended for the Grand Canyon game on Tuesday after being ejected against Oregon State on Sunday. He will be eligible for the USC series.
